La Macaronicité 5: macawrongs and macarights, macarons day and night
Thirty-five degrees Celcius and counting. What better way to sweat to death than whilst writing about macarons de Paris? Again.
I can't make macarons today because the heat in the kitchen would make me droop like Safeway's out-of-season asparagus. It'll be 40C by lunchtime (that's about 475F for dark-age foreigners). At least the humidity ain't so bad.
This has been my month of the world's most temperamental type of macaroon… La Macaronicité at Syrup & Tang, as I dubbed it, which tried to cover almost everything one might need to know without me actually excising the reader's creative spirit. Time to squidge everything together with scrummydumtious fillings and go on a picnic.
A few others joined in the fun and folly and spoke of it to me
* Vida was brave/impatient enough to accept my challenge to try out Shannon Bennett's recipe in his book My Vue. I didn't think it would work (too cool, too damp) and brave Vida confirmed privately that chef Bennett's restaurant hats (stars) ought not apply to his macaron recipe… disaster.
* Thanh of I Eat Therefore I Am was the other impatient soul who launched into the task with gusto. He tried the simple recipe (French meringue) and was disappointed, almost throwing in the towel. Then he tried the advanced recipe (Italian meringue) and his cries of joy could be heard from afar. Then he was overcome by Christmas pressures and almost had a nervous breakdown as he juggled macaron mixtures after midnight.
* Towser at Spot4Nosh emailed me and subsequently published his adventures with macarons and, teething problems aside, also produced some lovely macarons.
I hope more will take up the challenge. I know there are others in Australia who make macarons independently of my exhortations, including Ellie at Kitchenwench who has also written about them, Mellie at tummyrumbles who has also made them and Y at Lemonpi who apparently makes them in her dayjob occasionally but doesn't actually love them in the way some fanatics (little old me) do.
In the other parts of the La Macaronicité series I've linked to bloggers/sites elsewhere who offer inspiration and useful information. You can surf the web and you'll find more writings. I've probably missed one or two really good ones, perhaps forgotten a classic here or there, but I've also deliberately omitted some because they don't acknowledge whose recipe they're using (which I think is very bad form).
I haven't written about chocolate macarons. I originally contemplated a special article on them but decided there wasn't much point — although the internet shows many comments claiming chocolate macarons are the hardest to make, I simply can't agree. I've had no problem making them with the Italian meringue method (just reduce the other dry ingredients slightly to compensate for the cocoa) and even the French meringue method worked well for me (and David Lebovitz has had many complements for his recipe).
One of my commenters, DC, mentioned that there are now a number of books in French about macarons (I think I saw four earlier this year in Paris), and more interestingly, he saw one addressing the issue of failure. I think we all know by now that making macarons involves a certain amount of wastage, with singed edges, soggy middles, wrinkles and more (including tears). I wrote about an alternative use at the end of the second part of La Macaronicité and look! I now have pics:
This was Christmas pudding-ersatz (my mother's kitchen is under renovation so it was a slightly alternative Christmas dinner this year). Macawrongs + port + morello cherries + cherry juice + lightly whipped cream.
Thanks to everyone for their comments and questions. Don't hesitate to add more as time passes.
The delicate divas have left the building… (wearing sunscreen and floppy hats to ward off the sun).
Can you guess what flavour the macaron below is?
Cheers!
Duncan
You can also read La Macaronicité 1: an introduction to the macaron.
La Macaronicité 2: basic technique and simple macaron recipe.
La Macaronicité 3: the more reliable macaron recipe and a few tips.
La Macaronicité 4: fillings, flavours, frippery.
Filed under: cooking, food, hl, macarons
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*standing ovation from the stalls*
I love the macawrong puddings! (For their name and their spirit, as well as for texture and taste.) I'm tipping more morello cherries and coconut in the last macaron, though I daren't guess the flavour of the macarons themselves.
Thanks Cindy! The macawrong puddings really taste great, and the gradual change in texture of the shells as they go from somewhat chewy to mushy-marzipan is fun.
Alas, your guess for the mystery macaron is not so close. I should clarify that the shells themselves are plain, so it's really a game of guess-the-filling…
Bleedin' heck, that's a lot of 'Macawrongs'~!
As for the recipe from Bennett's book - it was the first one I tried and from all the recipes I've tried to date, it gave the WORST results. On the whole, I'm just pretty darn unimpressed with most of the recipes that I've tried from that book - either Bennett put in no effort when writing the book and scaling down the recipes, or he's deliberately f*cked things up so the more fabbo dishes can't be replicated at home and we HAVE to go to Vue de monde to get 'em. The sod.
Well done for this macaron study - it must've taken quite a few egg whites and more than a bit of time. So, what happened with all the yolks?
I know what flavour that macaron is, but I won't say! I don't believe anyone will guess!
Thanks for the mention Duncan, and for sharing around the fun! As for your mystery filling it's hard to tell from the pic but err…some sort of rice pudding and jam?? Bizarre.
(ps. you may have missed a 'Spot' in your hyperlink to my post)
@Ellie: It's only half the macawrongs I have in the freezer! This was a batch of orange-zest macawrongs made with the French meringue. They were very sticky. Good to hear someone else disapproves of the Bennett recipe… I read it and just thought 'how on earth will that work?'. Eggyolks: they became a delicious apricot ripple icecream! Twice. But I still have about six yolks frozen.
@Debbie: good on you for not spilling the beans:)
@Towser: fixed your link, sorry. Rice pudding is way off, but the jam is kinda close (not jam, though, and you'd need to guess the flavour of it too:P)
Thanks for all the great articles on macaron Duncan. And special thanks for guiding me through a lot of the steps so patiently via email.
That is a lot of macawrongs. I don't feel so bad now. I've been eating my macawrongs with nutella and they taste really good.
I'm guessing that pictured macaron is cranberry jelly and coconut to go with the Christmas theme. Am I close?
Ok you have inspired me to make them!
Macawrong sundae looks brilliant! You've started a whole new trend! Another thing you can do with crispy macawrongs is crumble them up til quite fine and sprinkle them on top of macarights before baking. They look quite speckly and pretty (especially if they're some attractive colour). We used to deliberately make macawrongs some times for this purpose.
My guess for your mystery macaron was going to be coconut and cherry jam, but just to be different, I'm going to suggest something way out on the leftfield : Goats cheese and Tomato relish Macaron?
(already I'm regretting even saying that aloud..)
@Thanh: my pleasure:) I think the hardest thing was convincing you that the wrongs can be right too:P
@Amelita: you're an adventurous soul, Amelita… go for it! (And maybe after that you'll try your hand at puff pastry too:))
@Y: My god, you mean people actually try to to do macawrongs?! That's like, um, ethically questionable isn't it? LOL. Your macaron guess is a lightly closer than some! (And one of my books has a recipe for spiced foie gras macarons, so the limits might be boundless…)
Mmmmmmmmmm Macawrongs…..
**insert Homer drooling noise**
Thanh, I'll take whatever macawrongs you care to send me, My touch is not delicate enough for macarights!!!
fig & coconut?
is there a prize?
should i keep guessing?
Grocer, there probably isn't a prize… especially when people are so far from the truth. NO COCONUT folks. Fig is an interesting idea (I have some fig jam in the fridge right now), but not in the case of Exhibit A.
Okay, as no-one wants to guess anymore…
Port jelly and roquefort!
Damn! It so looks like rice too!
I love your website!! I am hoping for some much needed help — I have made 4 different batches of macaroons — letting them air dry for an hour before putting in an oven. The most recent time, I used your recipe. Still, they all come out lopsided. They develop a foot on one side, but do not rise at all on the other side. Sometimes, they even ooze out on the risen side. I have made one successful batch a few months ago, so I know its not a matter of the oven. Am I letting them airdry too long? Could it be a matter of too wet a batter? Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
@khilde: I have no explanation for the lopsidedness, I'm afraid. Not something I've experienced, though I've read others' reports of it. I would guess there might be uneven temperature in the oven or you haven't used multiple baking trays, but not certain. And anything oozing is almost certainly an indication of too wet a batter. You didn't mention which method you used and what oven. [UPDATE: Oozing during baking can also be a result of too much heat from the bottom. Layer your trays.]
In general, I have to reiterate that macarons are difficult and you have to follow the instructions to the letter until you've got the hang of the good and bad signs. I've had quite a few emails asking me to diagnose problems, but often people just aren't actually following the instructions in the first place, or don't tell me enough about what they did.